‘Game Of Thrones’ boss confirms how many episodes will be in show’s final season

The HBO fantasy show returns for season 7 in July. Unlike previous seasons, which all consisted of ten episodes each, the next one will include seven episodes.

Speaking during a panel at SXSW festival, executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss confirmed that season 8 – the show’s final outing – will include just six episodes.

“It’s only going to be six episodes for the final season,” Benioff said, as reported by EW. “From the beginning we’ve wanted to tell a 70-hour movie. It will turn out to be a 73-hour movie, but it’s stayed relatively the same of having the beginning, middle and now we’re coming to the end. It would have been really tough if we lost any core cast members along the way, I’m very happy we’ve kept everyone and we get to finish it the way we want to.”

Getty Images

A trailer and the premiere date for Game Of Thrones season 7 has been unveiled. The announcement came after HBO released a Facebook livestream last week that featured a block of melting ice with an object inside it. Fans were asked to comment “Fire” or “Dracarys” to reveal the season seven premiere date only for the live-stream to unexpectedly end without releasing the air date. Eventually the live-stream kicked back into action along with a minute and half teaser trailer featuring dialogue from a variety of characters both living and dead.